How the Media “Covers” Labor

It is easy to forget that there are still places like Hamlet, North Carolina . . . until something tragic happens to put them on our mind.” So the Washington Post informed its readers several days after a September 1991 fire in a chicken-processing plant in Hamlet killed twenty-five workers.

It is easy to forget . . . especially when no reporters are there to remind you. Consider the facts from Hamlet. The food-processing plant doors were locked to prevent workers from s...